Pets' corner winners

Advice articles cover a range of most frequently asked questions and pet owner concerns such as:

Q: Is it safe to give my dog a raw bone from the butcher’s?

This is a highly controversial topic to which there is no simple answer. The safest thing is to say “no” because of the danger of obstructing or perforating the digestive tract, breaking teeth or causing constipation due toground up bone. On the other hand, a bone can provide great entertainment to the dog and certainly help clean the teeth, as long as it doesn’t break any.

Personally if I were to give my dog a bone, I would go for a large bone, avoid chicken bones, bones from chops, I would remove any lumpy cartilage bits which might be swallowed whole and keep a watchful eye on progress, probably taking it away before totally devoured into bits.

Can I catch TB (Tuberculosis) from my cat?

It was reported recently for the first time in the UK that 2 people had caught TB from cats. TB can affect nearly all warm-blooded mammals, including farm animals, wildlife, pets and humans. TB can infect any part of the body, but most commonly occurs in the lungs. Cats are most likely to become infected through bite wounds, and so non-healing skin lesions should be investigated. Other clinical signs in affected cats may be enlarged lymph nodes, respiratory signs, weight loss, and abdominal masses. TB in humans is rare and in cats is very rare, but it would make sense to follow basic hand washing when caring for cats. Particularly people who may be poorly themselves or on chemotherapy.

Mythbusters: You can’t teach an old dog new tricks

It’s a saying that’s quite familiar today, even amongst non-pet owners. We really don’t believe there is much truth in it. Time and time again people take on older dogs and with the right approach with positive reward based training, older dog can certainly be taught to sit, down, stand, wait, heel, stay, come, and leave. With shaping of behaviors using clicker and target training there is no end to what any dog can learn to do. Find a local dog club or check out Charter Vets New Dog Training Academy to see if you can teach your “young” or “old” dog a new thing or two!